Resilient tire.



T. BRADSHAW.

RESILIENT TIRE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.28. |917.

lgggl 12 Y Patented Apr. 1,1919A x75 /E Z l1I .III'I 4 Jilin v'!||.|rll|l1ll TD STATES PATE m THOMAS BRADSHAW, F OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

BESILIENT TIRE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. l, i919.

Application led April 2S, 1917. Serial No. 165,140.

Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Resilient Tires, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to pneumatic tires of vehicle wheels, and has for its object to provide a tread on a pneumatic tire which will be durable, inexpensive, nonskidding, flexible to accommodate itself to distortions of the wheel tire while in service and supporting the load of the vehicle, not easily penetrated by sharp articles, and which increases the tractive property of the wheel tire. y

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l is a plan view of a guideway and die for cutting semi-elli tical strips; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same, the die being shown in side elevation; Fig. 3 is a side View of the strip so cut by said die; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the same; Fig. 5 is a view of the same observed at an angle ot 45 from the view shown in Fig. 4;l Fig. 6 is a cross section of the tire made vup of my im-l proved strips; Fig. 7 is a side view of a portion thereof; Fig. 8 is a plan view of said portion. v

Referring to the drawing, l indicates a guideway having a groove 2, in which is fed to a die 3 a sheet 4 of fabric of substantially the width-of the tread which is to be formed.l The sheet of fabric may be a compound strip of fabric and rubber cemented together.` This sheet is cut into strips 5 by means of the die 3, which, when operated to cut the strips, is moved at an angle of 45 to the sheet of fabric and also to the guideway. The strip so cut ofi' from the sheet is shown in detail in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. It is of the general form of a prolate semiellipse, the inner and the outer edges of both its upper and lower surfaces 4being semielliptical in form, corresponding to the elliptical form 0f the die, which die is an oblique section of a cylinder whose axis is in a d irection in which the die moves to cut off the strips. The upper surface 6 of the strip shown inv Figs. 4, 5, is the part of the upper surface of the sheet which is severed after each advance of the sheet toward the die;

.the upper sloping surface 7 of the strip, seen 1n Fig. 4, but not in Fig. 5, is the part sheared off by the die lin making its cut. The strip is of uniform height or thickness except that the ends are beveled throughout,

as clearly seen in Fig. 3, but as shown in Fig. 4 it tapers to nothing in width at each end 8.

These strips are laid in succession on the tire 9 in planes making angles of 45o with the tangential direction of the tire, so that the surfaces 7 of all-the strips form the outer surface of the tread of the tire, while the surfaces 6, which are parts of the original lupper surface of the sheet of fabric, contact with the surfaces l0 of said strips which are parts of-the original under surface of said sheet and are located within the body of the tread of the tire.

A wheel equipped with such a tread does not easily skid. The tread is very durable and it is also pliable and flexible, and can accommodate itself to the distortion of the wheel tirewhile in use, and greatly increases `the tractive power of the tire.

A tread for a pneumatic tire composed of narrow strips, each 0f the general form of a prolate semi-ellipse and of 1cleXible sheet material, arranged in contact with one anvother in planes oblique to the circumferential direction of the tread, their exposed outer surfaces ybeing oblique to the planes of the respective strips and continuous with one another to forma smooth continuous tread surface.

THOMAS BRADSHAW. 

